'Steve is with us': US bobsled hopes to honor legendary driver

The goal for this Olympic bobsled team is the same but the journey to get there will be different because of the unexpected death of star Steve Holcomb.

Author:
Jim Donovan, WKYC

Published:
4:45 PM EST January 16, 2018

Updated:
4:45 PM EST January 16, 2018

The U.S. Bobsled team will have a different look in South Korea when they compete at the Winter Olympics.

That’s because legendary driver Steve Holcomb will not be part of Team USA’s pursuit for gold.

And while the goal for this Olympic bobsled team is the same, to stand on the podium in South Korea, the journey to get there will be different.

Back in May the three-time Olympian died in his sleep at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York. He was 37.

Bobsledder Steven Holcomb poses for a portrait during the Team USA PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics portraits on April 27, 2017 in West Hollywood, California.

For U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, the hardest thing is that none of them know bobsled without Steve Holcomb.

“We’re never going to forget him, and he’s left such a legacy and he's meant so much to all of us. It’s really going to be a difficult Olympics, it's going to be a difficult season, there’s no way around that,” Taylor explained.

Holcomb piloted the U.S. four-man team nicknamed ‘Night Train’ to a gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and ended a 62-year drought at the time.

And four years later, in Sochi he won bronze in both the two-man and four-man events.

Holcomb was a giant in the sport, but small on words.

"If you walked past him you would have no idea he was a three-time Olympic medalist, World Champion and all kinds of different stuff,“ U.S. bobsledder Nick Cunningham described. “Filling those shoes will never happen, we’ll never ever fill those shoes, but we're going to try and honor that position and that’s all we can do as a team right now.”

Now his former teammates plan to find ways to honor Steve during the upcoming competitions.

"We all know Steve is with us,” bobsledder Carlo Valdes said.

PyeongChang would have been Holcomb’s last shot at Olympic gold because he was planning on retiring after the 2019 World Cup season. He’s left a big impression on the sport and his teammates too.

“I know how much this sport meant to him," Elana Meyers Taylor said, "and I know how much he wanted to go onto PyeongChang and try and win a medal and the least we can do is give it all we got and try to move forward from this.”

Chris Fogt, Steven Holcomb, Curt Tomasevicz and Steve Langton walk the red carpet during the U.S. Olympic Committee's Best of U.S. Awards at Warner Theatre on April 2, 2014 in Washington, DC.